Unfinished stories and ignored premises

I went into my "projects" folder yesterday and painstakingly tidied up the pile of unfinished stories, ideas, premises, world-building, and half-plots I've hoarded over the years. Everything's now in individual files, and all related info is fused into single coherent documents.

I felt pretty good about my compulsive efforts. Then I felt less good when I counted the files: 68. Is that too many?

I have yet to finish a single story. This puts everything in perspective.

I have three completed novels, though not very good. I have two half novels and my current WIP I am working on. Not including all the little notes on my phone for random story ideas that I would write if I only had enough time in the day.

Most of them are all on different computers before I moved everything to the cloud. I have yet to go through those files in years...
 
One thing I did with my unfinished stories (most are in fantasy realms) is combine them into the fantasy I'm working on now as part of the history of the world. It worked quite well for me.
 
Yeah I seem to be having more and more of those fusions. Bits that might never make it as a story can thrown into the mix if there's enough compatibility, and as the number of dead stories decrease, the richness of the surviving stories grows. Always recycle (y).
 
Yeah I seem to be having more and more of those fusions. Bits that might never make it as a story can thrown into the mix if there's enough compatibility, and as the number of dead stories decrease, the richness of the surviving stories grows. Always recycle (y).
That's awesome. Yeah. You never know when your old and maybe not so stellar works will come handy.
 
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I think there are two main paths to collaboration. The first is where a well-known and/or wealthy person has an idea for a story but hasn't the time or ability to pull off the writing, so farms it out to someone else, either a ghost writer who does all the work but gets no recognition (as is usual in celebrities' novels) or a fellow writer who gets a smaller by-line under a big-name author like James Patterson and the advantage of a ready-made readership. Either way, the second writer gets paid well for the work. I don't imagine that's a route open to you.

The second way is to find someone with whom you have a connection, whose style might or might not meld with your own but whose strengths and weaknesses complement yours when it comes to writing. I rather imagine that in such cases friendship comes first, and the writing builds upon the personal relationship which is already established.

If you want to have help in writing, and particularly if you want active collaboration, you must never forget to ask yourself the question "What's in it for the other person?" because as sure as eggs is eggs, that's what anyone else reading your post is going to think. It isn't enough that you believe you have a cool idea for a story. The writers here on Chrons have cool stories coming out of our ears and not enough time to write all our own, so although we're always happy to help anyone with ideas and advice, there's not a lot of incentive to spend the hours upon hours of time and energy needed to embark on a full-blown collaboration with someone we don't know.

So my advice is that you try and make a few friends here among the members. Be active and helpful in thread discussions, take part in the Writing Challenges, help critique work in Critiques, put up some of your own work there when you hit 30 posts, and generally get yourself known. You're much more likely to attract offers of help that way.

In any event, good luck with your story.
 
The Judge has spoken. Solid advice. We are worth the effort bud :cool::D
 
Finishing a story feels great. I've got about 3 finished novellas that need to be edited. One that is mostly complete but will need an edit once it's done, and many other false starts that I have in various stages of completion.

Some are further along than others. Some are shorts. Some are picture book text that has come close to being published by Random House and another US publisher. And some I'm keeping for the ideas in case I ever feel like finishing them.
 
Then I felt less good when I counted the files: 68. Is that too many?

There is no upper limit to jotting ideas and keeping them for the future. It's sort of a safeguard for worrying that I might forget something of interest, that I might want to get back to some day, when I have the time and/or I've let it simmer in the back of my mind for a while. I occasionally go back to such files and add details and ideas as they occur.

I have yet to finish a single story. This puts everything in perspective.
This could be a problem, and then maybe not. Completing a project, and then sending it out to find a publisher (or agent) or working toward self-publication can be a big morale boost (actually a double boost-finishing and moving forward a step to getting the work in front of readers), and might open up other opportunities.

Sometimes it just means buckling down and finishing, despite other projects clamoring for attention. With the file folders containing the saved information and content, nothing will be lost while those projects await their day in the sun, so to speak.
 

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